welcome to our special report, "cnn on the front lines," which is where any reporter wants to be. where it's happening, when it's happening, where it really counts. when it comes to that, it's been a really busy year for us, a busy year for the world. a year that mattered to millions. people who felt the earth torn apart and saw their world washed away, their faith in science rocked by a nuclear catastrophe. elsewhere, millions rose up against dictators. they watched friends and neighbors die in the streets, but then tasted freedom. you'll experience all of that in the hour ahead through the eyes and minds of my colleagues

and friends, where it happened right from the start. january 2011, the first rumblings of an uprising in cairo. crowds began to gather in the city central of tahrir square. a revolution has begun. >> what is your message to president mubarak? >> he should leave tonight. >> hosni mubarak should be egypt's dictator for 30 years, and the growing crowd of protesters want him out. but mubarak digs in, and the once-peaceful protests turn violent. >> oh, my god! >> this is an unmistakable show of military force. firefighter jets flying low over cairo's tahrir square, liberation square, which has been a symbol of defiance. >> what you're hearing them saying is in arabic it means,

"go, go." >> the demonstrators say that's the army firing to warn them to stay away. >> reporter: pro-mubarak forces target the unarmed protesters. journalists also come under attack. >> i'm a little bit scared, because i got shoved out of the way there. this is just a completely surreal experience. okay, okay. i'm not -- okay. i'm being told, walk, walk. don't stay. oka okay. >> i've been hit now like ten times. the egyptian soldiers -- the egyptian soldiers are doing nothing. >> we'd like to be showing you, instead of this picture, the strange image of us sitting on the floor of an undisclosed location in dim lighting, we would like to be showing you pictures, live pictures of what's happening in liberation square right now, but we can't do that because our cameras have systemically been taken down through threats, through

intimidation, through actual physical attacks. 18 days of clashes end with mubarak stepping down from power. just one country away, another revolution begins in benghazi, libya. >> we are the first television crew to get to this city, and we were just overwhelmed by the welcome here. people were throwing candy inside the car, clapping, shaking our hands, telling us, you're welcome, thank you for coming here. an incredible experience. >> the uprising against gadhafi turns into a seven-month war. in the capital, government minders try and force-feed journalists a message of total gadhafi control. >> this is really what the libyan government wants to get out. this message that here in the capital of tripoli, support for moammar gadhafi is strong. support for his government is strong. >> nato begins its campaign to

protect libyan civilians. the battle on the ground intensifies. >> this is proving to be a much tougher battle than anyone had anticipated. this city, key territories should the pro-gadhafi elements be able to push in here, the concern is that this could potentially turn into a bloodbath. >> get down! down! >> okay. we're leaving this area, because there's gunfire all around us and we believe that gadhafi's force are doing a -- a roundabout movement, so we are rushing out of this area. >> you all right, guys? alec? >> everybody's fine. we're going as fast as we can. >> as the fight draws closer to tripoli, gadhafi loyalists trap journalists inside a hotel. >> in the past few seconds,

really, or the past few minutes, we've learned that the security that has been so prevalent around this hotel has all of a sudden decided to leave, essentially the government minders who are armed with kalashnikov assault rifles have emptied the hotel and it's pretty empty in the lobby apart from a few security staff -- or rather, a few hotel staff. apart from that, it's completely empty, which makes it a very kind of uncertain time. >> tripoli begins to fall and the journalists are free. days later, opposition fighters storm gadhafi's compound. >> over here, you're seeing them -- these are cars that belong to the gadhafi regime. they are blowing off rounds on the top of them. that is obviously a security -- i'm going to try not to get hit by any of those rounds. >> gadhafi is later found and killed. in 2011, the world also watches

a natural disaster unfold on live tv. the most powerful earthquake to hit japan causes a massive tsunami. and widespread destruction. this feels like it's the ground, but this isn't actually the ground. we're probably -- this is probably about 10 feet up off what the actual ground is. there's just so much debris piled on, there's actually an entire van beneath me. more than 15,000 people are killed. >> when the earthquake happened, students at this elementary evacuated out of the school. they had no idea a tsunami was coming. out of 108 students at the school that day, 77 are either dead or missing. that's 70% of the children at the school. >> the quake also causes a nuclear emergency after floodwaters damage some of the country's largest nuclear reactors. the radiation leak forces the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. only the animals are left behind. journalists retreat to tokyo, but continue to report.

>> this one has an lawmaker, yours does. if you finally find yourself in an area where there's too much radiation, it will alarm. >> nuclear concerns linger today as the country tries to rebuild. another story where journalists and the world watched history as it happened. there are different kinds of seismic events, of course. some begin when the earthquake shakes, others when people simply won't be moved. it's been happening all around the world, most recently in egypt. we asked our reporters to spend a few minutes to tell us what they remember most covers these stories. ben wedeman was in egypt at the outset of the revolution. here's what he had to say. >> 2011 has been a year of unrelenting news, but of course, here in cairo the biggest news came on the 25th of january, when we were told that there would be yet another demonstration against hosni mubarak. we attended one and it went to tahrir square, but it was relatively small. we headed back to the office.

i started to write a script about that modest demonstration and i got a phone call there was tear gas being fired in tahrir square. so we went down to the street, jumped in a taxi, and started to go there, but we went over, or rather, under, what's known as the six october bridge. and just by chance, i looked behind me and i saw thousands and thousands of students coming down the bridge, shouting down, down with the regime, and heading to tahrir square. when i saw that, i realized this regime is going down. >> ben wedeman joins me now along with arwa damon, nic robertson, and hala gorani. what was about what was happening on that bridge that made you realize, okay, this is really it? >> it was the sheer number of people. i've seen demonstrations for years in cairo, against mubarak, against many others. but it was always a handful, maybe 100, maybe 200. the bridge was full. we're talking thousands and thousands of people. and i think what became apparent

that day was that the regime was outnumbered by the people. and i think that realization spread so quickly that three days later, basically, the regime gave up and handed over the country to the army. >> people died on that bridge. you were beat up, you were pushed around a little bit near that bridge, weren't you? >> that was on the 28th. >> on the 28th? >> actually, in cairo, you get shoved around quite a lot by the security forces. >> you'll have to be more specific about which day. >> okay, yeah. but on the 28th, we were filming and this was clearly the day when it was all going to come down and sort of with finality. and we were with tommy evans and mary rogers. and we were basically suddenly surrounded by plain clothes policeman and hired thugs. they looked like they were under the influence of some kind of narcotics. and they were insisting on taking away the camera. and i said, no, because we had great footage of some incredible scenes. and what ensued was a very long

pushing and shoving match in which, eventually, they just cracked the camera, the view finder right off and took it away. i went back to argue with this superior officer, the commanding officer -- >> you're fluent in arabic. >> yes, yes. and i was using words that i wouldn't use in polite company. and i argued with this guy for quite some time, but we lost. we lost our camera, lost the footage. got a bit roughed up, but, you know, it got me going. i was angry. >> right. i remember that night. i got there days later. but for all of us, for me, that was probably the most remarkable reporting experience, just to witness it, to be there. what about for you guys? i mean, you, ivan, were trapped in tahrir square in kind of in rundown hotel during the worst of the violence. we were all very worried about you. we were on the other side, the pro-mubarak forces. >> that was the famous day of the battle of the camel, where

we all saw scenes we think we'd never see before. first, this rock fight breaks out. i think you got attacked on that day. we were all getting pushed and shoved around and we were caught. my cameraman, joe duran and i, were caught in the middle of this horrendous rock fight between two sides. and basically ran, did a commando run, and our hotel, this kind of flea hotel, the door was chained shut. and we managed to squeeze in. got to the roof. and suddenly these camels started charging into the square and beating up the demonstrators. and then the riders were ripped off. and we were stuck in that hotel, in tahrir square, as it was encircled by the thugs, and we didn't know if we'd get out that night. >> because the fear was that they would come into the hotel, there was nothing to stop them if they had that area. >> we didn't think the demonstrators could hold out against the regime. and they did, for days. and they won in the end. >> what i find fascinating is

every -- this battle of the camels was seen from so many different perspectives. you were from up top. i was right there when the ca l camels came in. i was sort of trying to badly take blackberry pictures. but it just symbolized the historical nature of what was happening. >> all of a sudden this epic, bizarre, surreal camel charge? in tahrir square? and we were all seeing it -- >> i think that was the movement when many egyptians realized that the regime was bankrupt. had no idea how to deal with it. other than to pay a bunch of camel drivers to try to put down the revolt. >> when you resort to the camel drivers, it's over at that point. but it was interesting, i mean, because of technology and because of the resources, frankly, of cnn, you're able to be in the midst of stories in a way -- and broadcast live during them in a way that we just never have been able to do before. >> mm-hmm. >> and we saw that, whether it was you being in tahrir square, broadcasting live. i remember being on the balcony

with you of the hotel overlooking it and getting laser sighted by people in the area around where the thugs were. and we didn't know if it's a laser sight of a rifle or if -- what it was. >> we were sound surrounded. we were completely under siege. you could not leave the hotel without getting beaten up. we named it, sarcastically, the beat a journalist day, because so many people were just getting smacked around. and there was something so raw and visceral among those who were pro-mubarak, anti-us, hating us, labeling us as spies. >> we want to continue the conversation about egypt when we come back. also, what's happening in egypt right now. we'll also look at what happens after a dictator falls, the struggles with the military, and now elections. here's ivan watson. >> this year, tahrir square has been the scene of incredible drama. sensational images of the famous battle of the camel, people fighting each other with clubs and sticks, making weapons and

shields out of the most basic tools. but it has also become a symbol, tahrir square, behind me, of a struggle for freedom, a struggle for dignity in the arab world. first, in january and february, as egyptians gathered and said no to the dictatorial regime of hosni mubarak, and once again nine, ten months later in november as they gathered again and said no to the ruling military council here. so tahrir square has become a symbol of this struggle for dignity in the arab world, and i predict we'll see more drama here again as egyptians continue to see this square as a sign and a symbol of their struggle for freedom. ♪ in here, pets never get lost. ♪ in here, every continent fits in one room. it was fun. we played football outside. why are you sitting in the dark?

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i was able to witness firsthand the birth of something that i thought i'd never seen in the middle east. protesters demanding accountability from their leaders. i never thought in the years i spent covering the middle east, and in the time i've spent going back and forth to the middle east, my family is from syria. i never thought that i'd see a dictator taken down by the tower of street protests.

in egypt, it's freer. the press can travel to cairo and report, and i've come to love that country and the people in egypt. i truly have, over the several years i've spent reporting in there. so it's almost a -- i almost -- it's almost like wishing family well, when you know a can country intimately, in the way that i feel like i've grown to know egypt. >> hala gorani and the transformation in egypt. i spent time there at the height of uprising, but hala and her colleagues had a chance to see every chapter before and since. ben, you live in cairo. your family was there. at the same time all of this was happening, you're also concerned about your family and their well-being? >> i was completely split, ripped in two. because on the one hand, i wanted to cover the revolution. on the other, my neighborhood became an armed camp. you know, my neighbors put barricades, barriers on the

roads. they pulled out weapons i didn't know they had, shotguns, machine guns, samurai swords. and even my 17-year-old son was out there every night with a baseball bat and our german shepherd joining the patrol. because we live in a very nice neighborhood surrounded by slums, with next to egypt's largest prison. >> i'll never forget broadcasting with you and with hala. we had snuck from the hotel to the bureau, because it would have a better satellite feed for us. and moments before we went on the air, you saw, or the security guys saw some people coming up through the back alley, and the bureau is completely open, anybody can get into the building, and that's when we decided to turn off all the lights, get down on the floor, and the security guy suddenly jammed the couch in front of the door. i was like, that's our high-tech security? jam the couch in front of the door? and we just went ahead with the broad cast on the floor. that, for me, was one of the most intense moments. >> surreal. >> surreal. absolutely surreal. you've all reported on this region. did you ever expect to be seeing

the things that you are now seeing? >> never. >> absolutely not. not across the whole of north of africa the way we've seen it change. and i think this is only the beginning. we're looking forward to next year. the revolution's happened, but as we all know, what happens after revolutions, the countries going through convulsions and contortions and several governments may come over the next few years. syria is an event in a way that we're still waiting to happen. and that will happen an effect. >> syria's going to have a huge effect. >> to be sort of watching the middle east completely and utterly change, no, who would imagine that. >> the u.n. had recently come out with the report saying there's civil war in sirra. arwa and hala, you were recently there. i want to watch what hala had to say about her experience there. >> i was hiding in the back of a white van with to activists who were absolutely terrified, who i'd never met before in my entire life and they were taking me through the damascus suburbs to link up with a young doctor

who had set up a secret underground clinic, part of a network of doctors trying to save wounded demonstrators' lives. they were taking this incredible risk because they wanted us to see some of their patients. people who had gunshot wounds, that weren't able to go to hospitals, and a young boy, a teenager. the doctor didn't have the medical equipment to be able to fully understand the scope of his injuries. so he said, this little boy was partially paralyzed from the waist down. the doctor was a young man. he said it was so difficult for him to have people die in his hands, because he quite simply couldn't save them. >> for months, the syrian government has been lying publicly. they're saying, the ambassadors are free to travel wherever they want in syria. what was your experience? >> well, you're free to travel, as long as you take a government minder with you, who's not called a government minder. he's called a facilitator. he's not there to prevent you from reporting, he's actually there to help you out.

>> protect you against those elements who might want to do you harm. that was the narrative the whole time we were in syria. we're not keeping you from traveling around the country because we want to hide things from you. we're keeping you from traveling around the country because we want to protect you. but it was still better to be there with those restrictions than not to be there at all. we were able in the end to get some of these stories, get out, away from our minders, and get some of the reports -- >> because the street whispers to you too and the street talks to you. >> what do you mean? >> people will come up to you and slide pieces of paper in your hand. >> we connected with some of the activists. they would slide very -- in this age of twitter and facebook and everything, the most old-faxed way of communicating is how i got the best contact in syria, which was a young man, an engineering student, who i'm still in touch, with a fake e-mail account, just to make sure he's okay, rolled this tiny, tiny little piece of paper and put it in my hand and said, they're lying to you, call me, e-mail me.

it was just -- it was amazing how they get around the controls of the surveillance. >> and when you think about the risk that their taking, they could die so easily or be tortured -- things we can't even imagine. we hear some of the stories coming out of syria and they're so terrifying, it makes your skin crawl. and people are taking this risk all the time. we'd be there surrounded by government minders and someone would walk back and say, they're lying, that's all you hear. >> do you get used of seeing the bravery of people coming forward. do you get used to people being killed in the streets for speaking out? >> never. >> these people, the bravery we've seen, it makes you want to weep sometimes to see these people come out, they're at a funeral of their friend who was killed and then the security forces start shooting at the funeral procession. and they still keep chanting, you know, democracy or down with the regime, when being fired on that way. >> even now, on my show, i talk to people in syria, on the phone, who insist on using their real names. they insist on it, because they

say they're no longer afraid and they want the government to know, they're no longer afraid, no matter what's going to happen to them. >> that's the biggest unifying factor i found through the whole region, people saying, we lost our fear. it started there and rolled across. when people say they've lost their fear, that's when government should worry. >> we're going to have much more ahead with our correspondents. for libya, 2011 also brought an incredible change there. opposition forces took on moammar gadhafi's military, ultimately won with the help from nato. david and goliath story, if ever there was one, with plenty of hair-raising moments in tripoli. cnn's matthew chance became a prisoner along with other journalists in his hotel. >> we've been living in fear for the past five days, because we've been really being held against our will by these crazy gunmen. also i head, the triple disaster that left more than 15,000 people dead in japan. a massive earthquake, a tsunami, and the nuclear crisis it set off.

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by february, the unrest sweeping egypt and tunisia had already reached libya. demonstrators took to the streets in benghazi and tripoli, demanding an end to moammar gadhafi's rule. a bloodbath had begun and wouldn't end for eight more months. the opposition would finally gain a foothold and make a major advance throughout the country with the help of nato. nic robertson was in tripoli, in the capital, one of the first reporters there in the early days of uprising. >> reporter: when we were going into tripoli at the end of february, we had no idea whoo to expect. some journalists pulled out and just didn't go. others had been beaten up driving from the airport to the hotel. but an amazing thing happened on our first day there. the government drivers and minders took to us zawir.

the government drivers dropped us off and let us go where we wanted to. we walked down the road, we could see a people gathered around a tank. as i climbed on the tank, i realized, these were rebels that the government minders had delivered us to the rebel side, and i started thinking, okay, there's going to be a gun battle and we had been brought in to film -- to witness it. but that was tnt case. the government had made a mistake, but right after that, they changed. the security kind of took over from the government officials who were sort of running the press side, and within days, whenever we left the hotel by ourselves without minders, we were being rounded up, sometimes at gunpoint, and forcibly taken back to the hotel. those first few days, we had a tiny bit of freedom and then government clamped down on us. >> nick joins me again with sara sidner, matthew chance, ben wedeman, and arwa damon. nic, what was it like in tripoli in those earlier days? >> those were the days where we had the most freedom.

they brought us in and then the intelligence had the idea that we were renegades, because we were heading off to parts of the city they didn't want us to go to and then they clamped down on us and the access dried up. >> and ben, you were the first western journalist to enter through the east of libya in opposition-held territory, taking your way to benghazi. i'll never forget the video of you getting to benghazi was like the allies entering paris after world war ii. just this extraordinary jubilation. >> and, you know, our first 48 hours in libya was really nerve-racking. because everybody you would meet and speak to was just full of this energy that had been pent up frustration, anger. it was suddenly coming out. and they were happy to see you, but they were so excited that, finally, they were free, that you couldn't have a normal conversation. and people are just shouting. and i would say, oh, my god, if

i stay here much longer, i'll die of a heart attack. but it was thrilling in a different way from egypt. >> during the final fall of tripoli, matthew and sara, i think everyone was riveted to both of you. matthew, you were trapped in this hotel. i just want to show some of what you had to say about it. >> i suppose the pivotal moment of the past 12 months for me was the situation i got myself into or found myself in in the hotel in tripoli. we weren't really commitmented to go outside, except under these very controlled circumstances. so you got a very distorted perspective on the entire conflict. afterwards, it was amazing, because i was personally very relieved, as were all the other journalists that were held inside. and i went out of the hotel, within a few minutes, i went to a live location of cnn in the center of tripoli, and, you know, i was surrounded by these crowds of people who had come out into the center of tripoli, and they were celebrating the liberation of their country.

and they were firing guns in the air, they were giving me flowers. it was just this amazing electricity about the place. that they were on the verge of a new era in their country and they were finally free. and you know, i felt part of that as well, because i was also free after a period of being incarcerated. and so it was an amazing moment. >> it's rare. often reporters end up talking about things that have already happened, that have already ocuo ocurd, but that was a story that was happening and you were caught in the middle. >> highly unusual to be the story yourself, and that's what we found ourselves being. but it was also remarkable, because weapon found this small little transformation that took place in our hotel, where everyone was so hardline, so pro-colonel gadhafi, the gunmen were so loyal to him. and over the period of the days, as they went by, as the sort of rebellion gathered pace and the rebels gained ground across the

rest of the country, this the transition took hold and the gunmen inside the hotel started to realize that the world outside the gates of the hold, their country had changed beyond recognition. when they finally made that realization, you know, the whole thing fell apart and they basically abandoned their posts. some of them got killed outside. >> what is that like, negotiating, though, with gunmen? it's an experience, i think, everyone on this stage has had, but until you have it, it's sort of hard to describe. what is it like? >> actually, the negotiations, which were carried out by the producer i was working, because she speaks arabic, obviously, they were the end result of what were days upon days, hours upon hours, of just everybody together thinking how we were going to get out of this. because our big concern was this was going to be the last stand of gadhafi's loyalists in the hotel where we were stuck. and here we were going to get caught up in that. that was our worst-case

scenario. so we were constantly kind of assess what our risk was, wondering, deciding what our next step would be, and we would present that to the guards. and we had no idea up to the last minute or two, the last five minutes, maybe, that this was going to produce results. and they finally capitulated. they finally understood that holding us captive was a dead end game for them. when that happened, there was a huge emotional release. they cried, they gave us their weapons. we took some of them with us in the evacuation, because if we'd left them there, they'd have been killed. >> a lot more about libya ahead. the nation that's endi ining 20 without the man that terrorized their nation for decades. also ahead, the disaster that claimed more than 15,000 lives in japan, raised new questions about the safety of nuclear power plants in earthquake zones. we'll be right back.

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we made it to a neighborhood that was right next to the compound that was gadhafi's sort of stronghold. and there was, you know, dozens and dozens of men holding their guns, celebrating, saying, you know, it's close, you know, it's about to be over. we're going to take this compound and we're going to kick, you know, the gadhafi regime out of tripoli and we're going to crush the regime that has been so crushing to us and our families for more than 40 years. it was exhilarating, it was one of those days where you're like, wow, this is history being made, right here. i'm standing right here, august 23rd, and tripoli is falling around me. >> sara sidner on the fall of libya's largest city.

people compared it to a fever or a wave, a set of giant dominos, the unrest that rippled and is still rippling across the region. sara and the rest of our panel are back. being there, was that the most intense experience that you had found yourself in? because you were reporting live throughout it all. >> it was. the second most was the mumbai attacks that i was right outside the taj hotel, but there was a barrier, so to speak. the walls of the hotel. there wasn't a barrier here. i mean, you were trying to decide on a minute-by-minute basis whether or not you and your crew were safe and whatever that meant in this scenario, and as people started going in to this compound, we couldn't, obviously, see with our own eyes. we were just next door, but we could hear, and the moment you saw them open up some of these files and the names on the files, the children of gadhafi,

we're like, where could they have gotten those. from inside, from inside, we're swimming in the pools! everyone was so happy to be swimming in the pools. we thought, okay, they're in -- it seems they're in. so it was a scenario where we went a little bit forward trying to decide, and finally we got to the walls of the outside of the compound. they were littered with bullets and holes and mortars. it looked like armageddon in there for a second. and then the guys were there, they were standing outside, and they said -- we said, you know, they said, who, who, who, who? and we said, cnn, and they said, oh! and they just let us walk right in and everyone was rushing in and then rushing out. and i kept thinking, what the hell is going on? what is going on? are people being shot at inside the compound still or are people just excited and they're going back and forth? what was going on, people were bringing guns out. they were bringing anything they couldn't get their hands on out and they were telling us, the tea is still hot, there are still people in there fighting. there are uniforms.

you could see shoes, you could see all sorts of things. people had just gotten up and gotten the hell out of there. >> it's a great moment when you're someone and you're able to say, cnn, and they're like, oh, okay. >> it doesn't happen -- >> sometimes the door just closes -- >> there's that too. but nic, you were in the hotel that extraordinary day when she came in screaming she had been raped by gadhafi's forces. >> and the people who had been the government officials, the minders who had been escorting us to the different places around tripoli, suddenly were pulling guns out of trouser belts. and literally took our camera and intentionally broke it in pieces and threw it on the floor. >> and one of the waitresses -- >> threw a bag or a sheet over her head, and then these government thugs just took her away, and all the journalists are trying to stop them from taking her away from the hotel.

>> where are you going with her? where are you going with her? >> i mean, it was the brutality that the regime said wasn't happening, unfolding in front of our very eyes by the guyses who were pretending to be something else. >> for you, what is a good day in the field? what is a day that makes you feel, you know what, this was -- this was a good day? we're doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing. >> when, you know, you feel like you actually do have this fundamental sense of purpose and you're feeling these human emotions. and especially with everything that's happening in the middle east right now, i don't think, despite the fact that we've been covering it, we actually understand what it means for the people that are going through all of this. what it means for libyans that have been through so much under gadhafi to finally not have that anymore and in all of these other places. they go through things that we can't even imagine. it's our worst nightmares. and they're living it. >> we're a window for our audience. and as big as we can open that window and show them what's

happening, it's a great feeling when you open that window and you know that you can show some of that story to the world. but what is an amazing feeling is when you feel on those huge stories that the world actually cares and is looking in through that window. and then you feel like you've done your job. >> because sometimes you feel like you're talking into a wind tunnel. you know, you're telling these stories and it doesn't have any impact. but when you do feel that impact, it's extraordinary. >> when the world cares, you know that the world cares and you know that they're watching. those are the moments that get me the most. and you know, i think when you reflect on this year, just looking at these pictures, it's reminding us, we were just talking about it. it's powerful to watch it. >> it's humbling. >> i think a lot of people don't realize, we don't actually see a lot of the reports when you're overseas and you're filing this stuff and you've got to go out to another demonstration and file another thing, you don't actually end up seeing a lot of the stuff. it was interesting just to watch

you all watching these pieces that we're showing -- >> it's the first time we've seen them. >> and we were all so much younger at the beginning of the year too. >> that's true. >> we'll have much more ahead. the other big story of 2011, japan's killer earthquake and tsunami. villages turned into rubble. not just homes lost, more than 15,000 live lost. and for the survivors, there are still radiation concerns. our international correspondents are going to share their insights on the disaster, coming up. paperless discount. paid-in-full discount. [yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that's progressive. call or click today.

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look for the healing seal. gold bond medicated lotion. stop itching. start healing. continuing our look at the the biggest stories of 2011, from our correspondents who covered the stories firsthand, i want to turn to the japan earthquake and tsunami who hit on march 11st. no one can forget the video, a 30-foot wave destroying cities in just minutes. scenes like this played out all

along the coast of northeast japan, and here's what's caused the most fear. the crippled fukushima nuclear power plant. officials eventually put the disaster on par with the chernobyl disaster in the soviet union. here's how it started, with that massive 9.0 earthquake that hit the island nation. >> if there is one story that will always be memorable to me for this year, it is covering the tsunami in japan. but not those massive scenes of devastation. it's when i sat down with a young mother who was going over how many family members she had lost. and she started counting on her hand. and she ran out, and she had to keep counting. she lost seven immediate family members on among them, her 8-year-old son. and that's when it really struck home to me that this story was not about all the structures

that were lost, it was about the lives, the loved ones, and these victims, who would forever be impacted by it. >> more than 15,000 people were killed in the disaster. kyung lah joins me now with the rest of our panel. it was so extraordinary to be there and i had the pleasure of working with you a little bit. to be there not just for an earthquake and then a tsunami, but also this radiation fear and disaster that was occurring. what worried you the most? what was the most difficult aspect of reporting this story? >> because you can't see it. you know, unlike the conflicts that we've seen around the world, you can't tell if the nuclear radiation is hitting your body. you don't know. and so that was the most alarming thing, is that we simply didn't know. >> you were 11 weeks pregnant at the time, which a lot of people didn't realize. >> yeah, i was pregnant at the time. my 2-year-old was also at home with my husband. we had earthquake damage in our

apartment, so there was a lot of personal things going on. but that was a big concern. how close can we get? how much should we push personal safety in order to get this story, this incredible story, which we all want to cover. and there was very little information coming from the government. >> right. in fact, incorrect information. >> incorrect information. and we now know that they drug their feet and did not tell the international community all the information that they had. >> everybody on this -- on this platform has covered natural disasters. what is the difference between covering -- emotionally covering a national disaster from covering a war? is it a different reporting experience for you all? >> i found one earthquake in india, you're very much -- you become in scenes of utter devastation, you're trying to cover the story, but you -- you're so much involved in it. because you don't have anywhere to sleep. you're not sure where you're going to get your electricity from. and you don't know where your

food's going to come from because everything's clamsed. it's all on the ground lying around you. >> you're talking about electricity. i don't think a lot of people realize, for us the key is when reporting on a disaster is basically gasoline so you can run a generator so you can run electricity so you can broadcast. starting with that number one priority, finding a place to sleep and something to drink. >> it's a leveller. you're leveled with the community who suffer zbld this is the thing. one of the big, you know, obstacles of being in a -- in a natural disaster, like an earthquake or tsunami, the infrastructure has been so devastated, usually, that's you're in exactly the same boat as everybody else in the area. >> it is terrifying dealing with a radiation disaster. because you really don't have any sense of where it's okay to go. there's not a lot of expertise that you can really rely on. you suddenly find yourself kind of making these choices like, well, i think this place is okay. but we really have no idea. those are the choices that civilians are making every minute. >> and the japanese are so calm.

i mean, i think the biggest difference that i see in listening to all of you talking, looking at the video, is that we went from a story that was so filled with emotion and picture to a story that was exact 180 emotional opposite. the japanese are very quiet. >> the thing that impresses me about all of you, i've worked with all of you and seen you in the field, you meet some people in the field, some correspondents who swagger around is if they're these hard bid news men, seen it all, done it all, nothing affects them. i think those people have no business being in the field in those places. i think unless you are affected by it, see it viewed as a human being as well as a reporter, you don't do as effective of a job as telling the story of what human beings are going through. i've seen each of you in the field really be moved and overwhelmed at times by -- by the things that you have witnessed. how do you deal with it? how do you come back from that and go back out again? >> it's -- it's -- the worst is the feeling of helplessness. if you're watching some child dying or some family that have

lost their home or whatever, i mean, you can -- you can try to be empathetic. you can try to explain their story to the world. but there's little you can do. you can give them a bottle of water. you can give them a granola bar. people in the worst situations. but ultimately -- >> you can feel their suffering but you can't take their suffering away from them. and i think that hurts. >> how do you do it seeing this stuff time and time again? >> i feel beaten up after some of these assignments. this year with all the euphoria of the arab spring has also been, you know, i think for all of us personally exhausting. nic made a joke we all look older than we did a year ago. i think everybody feels that way. >> do you feel you carry the people you have met with you? >> sometimes. i experienced on several occasions, i will sit on the plane on the way home, which is the first time when you can actually stop when you're not focusing on working and the next story. you're beginning to disconnect and disengage. the tears will roll down my face and i can't stop it. and i don't want to stop it.

because that's part of the release. i'm lucky when i go home i walk in the front door and i'm dad. i've got two girls and a lovely wife. and i get on with that and i like running. that dissipates some of it. but why do we go out again? because ultimately we believe it does make a difference. >> you've all had those moments. >> yeah. >> you have them after -- i have them after. if you have them during, you can't do your job. >> that's really true. you just professionally get on with it. >> usually it's the sort of calm -- it'll come a few days later. a few weeks later. a youtube video of someone shot in the head dragged by their friend to safety in syria or somewhere else. i'll sit there and think -- in my mind i'll think, god help that country. i hope these people are okay. >> i find it life affirming, i have to say. you see so many dead people. you see the fragility of life. i went on this natural disaster tsunami. 8,000 bodies on the beach when i

arrived. it just makes you appreciate your life. that's how i deal with it. you know, i sort of kick back after a terrible story like that and think, well, thank god. that could so easily have been me. and it wasn't. i've got my life still. >> you notice a difference between conflict and the natural disasters. on an emotional leflt when there's a conflict, there's somebody that you can be angry at. there's a guy with a gun who's hurting innocent people. there's some tyrannical figure like moammar gadhafi who you can blame for all this. but when it's that natural disaster it's that finger of god that destroys a city. and -- and there's nobody you can blame. and it's a strange -- once again, it's the feeling of helplessness that you can't really comfort those people. >> i don't -- i don't know what to say. i mean, how many people did i talk to who lost every single member of their family? i talked to so many parents who

lost all their children. so what do you say to them? the only thing we can do as journalists is to tell their story. >> you know what maybe keeps you sane is coming back to some of these places later. >> yeah. >> or finding the people when they're out of the conflict zone or the -- the danger zone. >> yeah. >> or they've started rebuilding and, you know, they're scarred. they're -- but they're intact and they're moving on with their life. >> they're picking up and carrying on. at the time it feels terrible. you do, you see their resilience. >> come back a year later, two years later. >> which i also will say is one of the extraordinary things about cnn. not only are we the first ones there and the last to leave. we're the first ones to go back and we'll return more often than anybody else i have found over the years. i think that's great credit to the organization. we've got to take a quick break. we'll be right back. i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart

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